May 19, 2011

Box Score

ST. LOUIS, MO – The career innings leader in La Salle baseball history added to his impressive total on Thursday night, shutting out Saint Louis and going the distance in a 3-0 Explorer victory.

Kevin Fuqua’s complete game gem helped push the Explorers (27-22, 13-9) to the brink of clinching a berth in the Atlantic 10 postseason, needing one more victory in the season’s final two games to accomplish that feat.

As for Fuqua, he kept the Saint Louis hitters off balance all night long and notched his first shutout since a 2-0 victory over Manhattan back on March 15, 2009.

The right-hander allowed just four hits and one walk with six strikeouts including a dominating ninth inning where Fuqua struck out the side to slam the door on his sixth victory of the season.

On offense, La Salle did just enough, and were led by their lead off hitter Brendan Norton. Norton contributed on two of the Explorers three runs including an RBI single in the fourth and a lead off double in the seventh that led to another run. In the game, Norton went 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI and extended his hitting streak to 10 games.

La Salle took an early lead in the top of the first after Danny Klem came around to score on a Jon Gyles RBI single. The run was unearned off Saint Louis starter Alex Alemann, as third baseman Travis Parker committed a two-out fielding error that allowed Marc Schoch to reach and kept the inning alive.

The Explorers will try and lock down an A-10 postseason berth on Friday when they wrap up the 2011 regular season with a doubleheader against the Billikens scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. eastern.

Eric Van Wyk (3-2, 3.13) will start for La Salle in game one. Game two’s starter for the Explorers is still too be determined.